Americans for Job Security

Americans for Job Security (AJS) is a Virginia-based 501(c)(6) pro-business league.[1][2] The group has operated since 1997. AJS runs issue advertisements nationwide. It is not required to disclose its political contributions or expenditures.[3]

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Michael Dubke, David Carney, and several business groups helped start Americans for Job Security in 1997. Carney was political director for President George H. W. Bush, and Dubke was the first executive director and then president of Americans for Job Security until April 2008, when Stephen DeMaura, recruited by Carney, took over.[citation needed]

In 2002, AJS ran over $1 million in ads attacking Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, who was running for the US Senate from NH in opposition to Republican John Sununu. In the 2008 rematch between Shaheen and Sununu, AJS again funded ads attacking Shaheen.[4] In 2012, it bought $8 million worth of ads opposing Obama's reelection.[5]

Complaints have been filed with the FEC stating that AJS should lose its 501(c)(6) status, which is reserved for "business leagues and trade associations" rather than groups that seek to influence elections.[6][dead link][7]

In Alaska, the Pebble Mine proposal was opposed for endangering commercial fishing, and supported for creating jobs. Alaskan financier Robert Gillam paid $2 million to join AJS, as encouraged to by Dubke, expecting the money to be used to oppose the mine. Instead, AJS passed almost all of it onto another nonprofit, Alaskans for Clean Water, set up to push a ballot initiative, Alaska Clean Water Initiative, 2008, aimed at imposing clean-water restrictions on the mine, by a group that included Art Hackney, a local Republican consultant and board member of AJS. The Alaska Public Offices Commission investigated, and AJS paid a $20,000 settlement without admitting guilt, agreeing not to help anyone make anonymous contributions in the future which involved Alaska elections, but with the caveat the agreement did not apply to other states.[8]